The Pro-Israel Propaganda Complex

Caitlin Johnstone’s customary finger on the Zionist pulse is how I was first exposed to the telling presentation by Sarah Hurwitz to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly on 16 November 2025. Hurwitz was a senior adviser in the Obama administration (from which she was appointed as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council).

Says Hurwitz, young people no longer read but are hooked on social media. There, with respect to Gaza, they confront a ‘wall of carnage’. Hurwitz laments that: “So I want to give data and information and facts and arguments, and they are just seeing in their minds: carnage. And I sound obscene.” (Grown up) rationality has seemingly succumbed to (teenage) unprocessed sense impressions.

More, Holocaust education has been turned against us because our own young kin are applying the role of the evil oppressor, (Jewish) god forbid, to Israel itself.

British philosophy academic Lorna Finlayson (New Left Review’s Side Car) chimes in with respect to the Hurwitz performance:

“The true meaning of the Holocaust, we might infer, is not that it was bad because the strong were hurting the weak, but because Jews were the victims. When the victims are Black or Palestinian, it’s different.”

Peculiar that Hurwitz imagines that ‘the data and information and facts and arguments’ at her command contradict the youngster’s visualizing the ‘wall of carnage’. The ‘data and information and facts and arguments’ that I am familiar with are consistent with the visuals. Finlayson concurs:

“The trouble for Hurwitz, however, is that if the pictures aren’t on her side, the ‘facts’ and ‘data’ are even less so. The more we see of them, the worse Israel looks.”

Dead children, medicos, journalists, aid workers – an impressive and mounting tally. Ah, and the infrastructure! Bradford University’s Professor Paul Rogers, interviewed in April 2025, estimated that 70,000 tonnes of explosives had been dropped on Gaza to that date.

Hurwitz waxes mystical:

“The problem is, we’re not just a religion … We’re a nation. Civilization. Tribe. Peoplehood. But most of all we’re a family. … The seven million people in Israel, they are not my co-religionists, they are my siblings.”

‘The seven million people in Israel’ – what? Hurwitz is referring implicitly to Jewish people in Israel and, presumably, Jewish settlers who don’t live in Israel. Hurwitz conflates the local Jewish population and the state of Israel.

Civilization I don’t think so. ‘Tribe’ is correct – this is tribalism writ large. Yet the bad eggs, the founders and successive leaders of apartheid Israel, are dictating to the tribe the terms in their entirety on which tribalism will prevail. For Hurwitz – Israel is us, period. Being Jewish, you’re in the tribe on Israel’s terms – period. What do you think, at some expense, we send you to Jewish day school and Hebrew school for?

Finlayson again:

“The problem [for Hurwitz] with Palestinian children is not that they are evil [as per the claims of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant] but that they a PR challenge.”

How in the world could the bloodthirsty Zionist enterprise face a PR challenge?

The Zionist PR machine is an enterprise to behold. It is probably historically unprecedented in the density of its lobbying and propaganda entities. The character of the matrix is well captured in a review of American academic Harriet Malinowitz’s recently published book Selling Israel: Zionism, Propaganda, and the Uses of Hasbara, from whence this Malinowitz summary is extracted:

“[The hasbara, which can be] “bluntly described as propaganda, but in fact comprises a huge network of government ministries, nongovernmental organizations, nonprofit agencies and charities, campus organizations, volunteer groups, watchdog bodies, professional associations, media networks, fundraising operations, and educational programs that aim to fortify a Zionist-defined notion of Jewishness in persons within Israel, the United States, and other countries.”

Quite. And that’s just for Jewry itself, to keep it on the straight and narrow. The network addressed to the non-compliance and ignorance of non-Jews is something else.

Attached below is a list, inevitably incomplete, of organisations that one has been able to compile from public sources.

The resources devoted (both in funding and person hours) to selling Israel and warding off and attacking its detractors have been and are formidable. Do Zionists have time in their life for anything else?

There’s an anomaly here. If Israel is so innately good, why does it need so many resources to proselytize it, to defend it and to lie about its character?

The juggernaut has evidently had impressive results, of which the following.

The US Congress is a Zionist-occupied entity. The mass murderer Benjamin Netanyahu is invited into the hallowed premises, debauches it with his mendacity and is met with standing ovations.

The EU-Israel Association Agreement ‘entered into force’ in June 2000. The Agreement accords Israel considerable privileges. The background is here. The 154 page document is here. Of integral relevance is Article 2:

“Relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement.”

Israel is an apartheid state by construction, so how could this trade Agreement ever get on the drawing board, leave alone come to fruition?

Israel remains ensconced in global sporting entities, as exemplified with soccer. There is currently pressure on UEFA and FIFA to exclude Israel but the governing bodies have resisted to date. Russia has been sanctioned. Israel remains in the bosom of global sport.

Ditto culture. Eurovision’s sponsor, the European Broadcasting Union, is also under pressure to exclude Israel but has ignored it (this is ‘a non-political event’). Russia is immediately expelled in 2022. Israel remains in Eurovision. Israel has won Eurovision four times, with more recent questions arising of dubious voting integrity and the transparent ‘soft power’ leverage by Israel of the platform to detract from the ongoing genocide.

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Perusing the list, one can observe select categories.

1. Some early organizations began as charities to support Jewish communities in need. Amongst these, there has been a general trend to turn towards support for the state of Israel. Some latter day organizations are formally Jewish community support-oriented but add Israel to their charter.

2. Some organizations stand out with respect to the influence of their operations. Uniquely there is the Jewish Agency for Israel, in Mandatory Palestine, which was the nucleus for the state of Israel after 1948.

Singularly important are the dominant organisations in particular countries, not least AIPAC in the US, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and CRIF (Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France).

The power of AIPAC (and the size of the American Jewish community) puts it in a league of its own. AIPAC exerts an enormous influence on the US Congress, not least through funding for and against sitting members and candidates. AIPAC funding contributed to the defeat of long-serving Illinois Representative Paul Findley in 1982. Findley’s contemporary and fellow activist Pete McCloskey, California Representative (1967-83) was perennially under attack from the Zionist lobby. AIPAC and other Jewish organizations’ funding facilitated the defeat of long-time Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney and Alabama Representative Earl Hilliard, both in 2002 primaries. AIPAC funding defeated Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards, seeking re-election to a seat she previously held, in 2022. AIPAC funding defeated Missouri Representative Cori Bush and New York Representative Jaamal Bowman, both in primaries in 2024. Apparently AIPAC ‘invested’ $45 million in the November 2024 elections, half of which went to defeating Bush and Bowman. AIPAC conferences present a ghoulish spectacle in which Congress and government members bow down before AIPAC’s commitment to the imperatives of a foreign rogue state. (More details regarding the US Israel lobby are available in Serge Halimi’s ‘Is the United States’ patience with Israel running out?’, Le Monde Diplomatique, December 2025.)

3. A discernible category covers Christian Zionist organizations and Jewish organizations seeking amity with and support from Christian groups, not least Evangelicals. Christians United for Israel (US) is clearly the most significant of this grouping, with CUFI claiming over 10 million members. Israel and Zionism evidently value this alliance in terms of the numerical ‘heft’ that it brings.

Israeli academic Tom Ziv performed a quantitative analysis of the size of evangelical Christian Zionist populations in 18 Latin American countries (‘Evangelicalism and Support for Israel in Latin America’, Politics & Religion, 2022). He found a link between the size of such groups and the country’s support for Israel as reflected in UN votes, with such groups evidently having a direct impact on their country’s foreign policy. Being a ‘true’ value-free academic, he declines to articulate the ‘policy implications’, although the Israeli authorities would be thoroughly aware of the implications for hasbara PR funding.

As mainstream protestant churches were reducing their support for Israel (not least tangibly in divesting denomination-related investments from Israel-related corporations and activities), so also there had been some small shift against whole-hearted support for Israel amongst young evangelicals. The Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice’s’ biannual ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ conference, first held in 2010, heralds a counter-agenda from within the evangelical camp, spooking Israeli Zionist sources who (in 2014) labelled this movement an ’evangelical intifada’. The Bethlehem Bible College (established in 1979), BIPJ’s sponsor, has been attacked by the ever-reliable Jerusalem Post as spreading ‘anti-Israel propaganda’.

After 7 October, the US Christian Zionist lobby upped its support for Israel ‘under threat’, ramping up eschatological interpretations. Israel’s well-financed push (including from Israeli settlers directly) for Christian Zionist support has incorporated the ‘Global South’ (Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific) as well, but everywhere a trickle amongst this movement globally have continued to question previous unqualified allegiances because of the ongoing barbarism in Gaza.

4. Organizations, or divisions therein, whose focus is on converting criticism of Israel into antisemitism. These constitute the specialist hasbara outfits of the omnipresent ‘antisemitism industry’.

5. Campus-oriented organizations. There are organizations fostering Jewish ‘togetherness’, enhancing ‘Jewishness’, most notably Hillel. Become Hillel International, it is unrepentantly Zionist – as a consequence fostering some anti-Zionist spinoffs on US Campuses under a ‘Judaism On Our Own Terms’ umbrella.

Then there are singularly focused ‘attack dogs’ like Campus Watch. The official state-enabled repression of anti-Israel protests and anti-Israel opinion on campus has emboldened the campus-oriented Israel-firsters. Naturally, the university campus is seen a key battleground for ideas and opinion with the implicit stamp of respectability. From a Zionist perspective, not least with the high status of some anti-Zionist and/or Palestinian scholars, a critical take on Israel has been allowed to fester for too long. University Presidents, academic staff and students have been casualties.

6. There are the ‘Country X’ – Israel Chambers of Commerce. Seemingly innocuous, they can be a key focal point for economic and ultimate political influence through the medium of business leaders’ and corporate interaction in regular speechified gatherings and inter-country missions. The Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce actively functions on this broader palette. Ultra-Zionist Jillian Segal, appointed ‘Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’ in 2024, has been an especially active player in this particular domain of soft power.

7. A handful of linkages have a technical or scientific exchange orientation. Such are the Israel Innovation Network (ILAN) in Mexico, the Caribbean Israel Leadership Coalition, and the SIGNAL Group’s involvement with Chinese institutions. This is soft power at its most sophisticated.

8. Some organizations claim progressive intent and credentials but also claim unqualified support for Israel. For example, The World Union for Progressive Judaism clams itself “… the central hub that connects Reform, Liberal, Progressive, and Reconstructionist Judaism around the world while upholding the State of Israel as the center of the Jewish people and Jewish identity. … The WUPJ aims to provide innovative platforms and tools to advanceProgressive Jewish values …”

Some organizations have charters that formally support or work on terms of equality of treatment and equality of access of all Israelis and Palestinians to services. However, their orientation is to accept and work, without apology, within the current structure of apartheid Israel and its tyrannous Occupation of Palestinian lands. Such is the case, for example, of Project Rozana, a medical assistance organization originating in Australia. Rozana has been criticised by the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network: ‘This organization is not a neutral humanitarian initiative – it is a political project designed to normalise Israeli apartheid.’ Following 7 October 2023, Rozana’s ongoing efforts have been overwhelmed by the carnage, exposing its work as a band-aid on a medical crisis of monumental proportions, denying the source of the problem.

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The scale of the pro-Israel support network defies comprehension. It is a gigantic apparatus, a juggernaut, committed to support and defense of a criminal state. With Israel’s escalating barbarism since October 2023, the support network has ramped up rather than diminished. Some anti-Zionist Jewish organizations, perennially small in size and excommunicated by their Zionist brethren, have continued to criticize Israel. Some new ones have appeared. Yet no ‘official’ Jewish organization, nor prominent leader within those organizations, has issued a mea culpa since October.

It is an unsavoury spectacle. There is manifest here a collective sickness of soul, a moral depravity. Paradoxically, the centre of gravity of this apparatus is the so-called ‘diaspora’, which declines to make ‘Aliyah’ to reside in the state that is the singular object of its devotion.

The personnel of this apparatus claim disgust at the recent seeming escalation in acts of ‘antisemitism’. The cause is self-evident. Zionists, heal yourself.

Comes the appalling massacre at Sydney’s Bondi beach on 14 December, and a tidal wave of reported opinion in the media. Not a single mention of Israel. Yet Israeli flags adorn the memorial site and the political class is being pressured to make ‘hate speech’ against Israel illegal. The propaganda complex is in full working order.

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Pro-Israel Organisations

(Jewish media, important vehicles for the hasbara, have not been included in the list. Similarly, Jewish ‘faith’ educational institutions have necessarily been excluded. Some locations (lobby or hasbara?) may be arbitrary on the margin.)

Zionist activist and lobby groups

(a handful of these entities have acquired a Zionist orientation after their benign origins in support of Jewish community welfare)

B’nai B’rith 1843-

WZO   World Zionist Organization (formerly Zionist Organization) 1897-

JAFI    Jewish Agency for Israel 1929-

Hashomer Hatzair 1913- (youth movement. originally ‘Marxist-Zionist’(!); now Israel-based)

Betar 1923- (youth movement; Latvian origins, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky)

WUPJ World Union for Progressive Judaism 1926- (originally UK, now Israel-based)

Netzer Olami (Reform Zionist youth movement)

World Jewish Congress 1936-

Hillel International (The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life) 1923-; 1988- (US origins)

World Union of Jewish Students 1924- (now Israel-based)

IAF      Israel Allies Foundation 2004-07- (Israel-based, targeting Christians)

________

URJ     Union for Reform Judaism 1873-

Yallah! Israel 1958- (youth-oriented Israel trips)

Jewish Council for Public Affairs 1944- (US) (Zionist lite?)

American Zionist Council (1949-1966)

AIPAC American Israel Public Affairs Committee 1954-

ADL    Anti-Defamation League 1913- (US)

AJC     American Jewish Committee 1906- (originally anti-Zionist)\

Kibbutz Program Center 1967-

Jewish Defense League 1968- (Kahane)

CUFI   Christians United for Israel 1975- (US)

Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs 1976- (Israeli ‘think tank’)

SWC   Simon Wiesenthal Centre 1977-

Republican Jewish Coalition 1985-

Middle East Forum 1990- (Pipes)

Partners for Progressive Israel 1992- (Zionist lite?)

Taglit-Birthright Israel 1994- (youth travel sponsorship to Israel ‘to strengthen diaspora Jews’ connection to Israel and increase a sense of Jewish identity’)

Jewish Federations of North America 1999- (merger of the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), and the United Israel Appeal (UIA)

IAC     Israeli-American Council 2007-

eJewish Philanthropy 2007-

J Street 2007- (Zionist lite?)

SSI      Students Supporting Israel 2012- (US)

LionPAC ~2012-? (‘Columbia University’s AIPAC on Campus’)

Israel Victory Project 2017- (Pipes/Middle East Forum)

StopAntisemitism 2018- (US-based)

StopDontShop 2023-

CAM   Combat Antisemitism Movement 2019-

________

Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA 1917- (originally a Jewish support organisation)

CIJA    (Canadian) Centre for Israel & Jewish Affairs 2004-2011-

Mizrachi Canada 1960s-? (religious)

________

Board of Deputies of British Jews 1760- (originally anti-Zionist)

AJA     Anglo-Jewish Association 1871- (originally anti-Zionist)

Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Israel 1899

Jewish Labour Movement 1903- (UK)

UJS     Union of Jewish Students of the United Kingdom and Israel 1919-

UJIA   United Jewish Israel Appeal 1920- (UK-based)

Labour Friends of Israel 1957- (UK)

Conservative Friends of Israel 1974- (UK)

Habonim Dror 1982- (Labor/Socialist Zionist; from earlier organisations)

Community Security Trust 1986- (child of Board of Deputies of British Jews)

Jewish Leadership Council 2003- (UK)

Fair Play Campaign Group 2006-

________

CRIF   Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France) 1944-

Central Council of Jews in Germany 1950- (state-funded)

Sweden-Israel Friendship Association 1953-

Israel-Italy Chamber of Commerce 1955-

DIG     Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft (German–Israeli Society) 1966-

MIFF   Med Israel for Fred (With Israel For Peace) 1978- (Norwegian origins)

European Jewish Congress 1986- (umbrella organisation)

GIF  The German Israeli Foundation For Scientific Research & Development 1986- (state to state).

ECWF European Council of WIZO Federations 1992- (Women’s International Zionist Organization; Scandinavian ‘chapters’ from 1917)

European Coalition for Israel 2004- (Christian Zionist)

EFI European Friends of Israel 2006-15 (European parliamentarians)

European Jewish Association 2007- (Orthodox)

ELNET  European Leadership Network 2007-

German-Israeli Future Forum Foundation 2007- (German-Israeli state to state)

Transatlantic Friends of Israel 2019- (cross-national Parliamentary Members; formed by the Brussels-based AJC [American Jewish Committee] Transatlantic Institute)

Netzwerk Israel (Israel Network) 2023-? (German)

Le Chéile (Together) Dublin Center 2025- (cloistering a significant Israeli population)

Italy-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Association (date of formation unknown, but the AJC claims that the Association is the largest of its kind in Europe, with over 200 members)

________

Press and Digital Diplomacy Departments (official; Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel Aviv and Embassy-based)

Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs 1976-, 2024- (conservative ‘think thank’)

Nefesh B’Nefesh 2001- (Israel, promoting Aliyah)

ILF      International Legal Forum date? (Israel-based ‘lawfare’)

Shurat HaDin: Israel Law Center 2003- (Israel-based ‘lawfare’)

Masa Israel Journey 2004- (Jewish Agency / Israeli Government)

SIGNAL Group (sino-israel.org) 2011- (takeoff) (Israel-directed ‘soft power’ links with China, esp. academia, with increasing commercial/technological orientation)

Global Israel Initiative 2023- (Indo-Pacific-oriented)

________

AIJAC Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Committee 1997- (from two prior organisations, 1974- and 1984-)

ZFA     Zionist Federation of Australia 1927-

JCCV  Jewish Community Council of Victoria 1938-

Zionist Federation of New Zealand 1943-

ECAJ  Executive Council of Australian Jewry 1944-

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies 1945-

AUJS  Australasian Union of Jewish Students 1948-

Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce 1975(?)-

Labor Friends of Israel 1977-; revitalized 2024 (Australia)

New Zealand Jewish Council 1981-

AILF   Australia Israel Leadership Forum 2009-

Leadership Dialogue Institute 2010- (AILF expanded to include the UK, of which Australia Israel Labor Dialogue)

________

CUFI   Christians United for Israel Latin America 2016- (US-based)

LCI      Latino Coalition for Israel (US-based, evangelical)

Latin American Jerusalem Task Force 2018

CILC   Caribbean Israel Leadership Coalition 2017 (US- & Barbados-based)

ILAN  Israel Innovation Network 2018- (Mexico-based)

AFOIA  American Friends of Isaac Accords 2025- (Latin America)

________

South African Zionist Federation 1898-

SAFI   South African Friends of Israel (directed at Christians)

Africa-Israel Initiative 2011- (Christian)

________

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem 1980- (Jerusalem-based, evangelical, Pacific Island connections)

Christian Friends of Israel 1985- (Israel-centred)

One For Israel (Israel College of the Bible) 1990- (‘Christian Reformed fundamentalist private Hebrew-speakingMessianic Bible college’)

PFIS    Prayer for Israel Samoa

_________

Hasbara groups

CAMERA Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis 1982-

UN Watch 1993-

MEMRIcMiddle East Media Research Institute 1998-

Honest Reporting 2000-

Masada 2000 2001-07 (attacking Jewish Israel critics; too rabid even for Zionists)

SWU   StandWithUs (or Israel Emergency Committee) 2001-

Hasbara Fellowships 2001-

NGO Monitor 2001-

Israel at Heart 2001-

Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre 2002-

The David Project 2002-17 (Hillel; merged into Hillel)

ICC Israel on Campus Coalition 2002- (Koret Foundation)

Campus Watch 2002- (Pipes/Middle East Forum)

CoHaV Coalition of Hasbara Volunteers 2003-

Jihad Watch 2003- (David Horowitz Freedom Center)

ISGAP Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy 2004-

Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation 2004-

Centre for Israel Education 2007- (Stein/Emory University)

AMCHA Initiative 2012- (US Campus-based)

Canary Mission 2014-

Campaign Against Antisemitism 2014- (UK)

The Philos Project 2014- (US-based; Christian)

Maccabee Task Force 2015- (Adelson)

Act.IL 2017-22 (Israel)

Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism 1924-

Project Esther 2024- (US-based; Heritage Foundation, newly-registered Bridges Partners; recruiting social media personalities)

Show Faith by Works LLC 2025- (Israel-funded targeting of US evangelical Christians)

Clocktower X LLC 2025- (US PR firm hired by Israel for pro-Israel propaganda towards ‘Gen Z audiences’)

DocuNation Season 3: The Heart of Israel 2025- (Times of Israel sponsored)

Fund raising bodies

JNF Jewish National Fund 1901-

Keren Hayesod

(United Palestine Appeal / Palestine Foundation Fund / United Israel Appeal) 1920-

FIDF   Friends of the Israel Defence Forces 1981-

________

(Non-establishment) Israeli organizations

Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) 1978-

B’Tselem (Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories 1989-

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel[ 1996-

PHRI   Physicians for Human Rights – Israel 1988-

BtS  Breaking the Silence 2004-

Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights 2005-

Road to Recovery 2010- (Israeli; cross-border volunteer medical transport assistance)

Molad: The Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy 2012-

_______________

Non-Zionist or Anti-Zionist (Jewish) Organisations

UJPO  United Jewish People’s Order 1926- (Canada)

Neturei Kerta (Guardians of the City) 1938- (Haredi)

UPJB   Union des progressistes juifs de Belgique 1939-

ACJ     American Council for Judaism 1942-

Jewish Anti-Zionist League 1946-47 (Eqypt; closed down)

New Israel Fund 1979- (US-based; opposes BDS; Zionist lite?)

AJDS  Australian Jewish Democratic Society 1984-

JVP     Jewish Voice for Peace 1996- (US-centred)

UFJP   Union juive française pour la paix (French Jewish Union for Peace) 1994- (France)

Jewish Voice for Just Peace- Ireland

Een Ander Joods Geluid (A Different Jewish Voice) 2001- (Netherlands)

EJJP    European Jews for a Just Peace 2002- (umbrella grouping)

JAO48 Jews Against the Occupation 48 2003- (Australia)

IJV      Independent Jewish Voices 2007- (UK)

IAJV   Independent Australian Jewish Voices 2007-

IJAN   International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network 2008- (US-centred)

Open Hillel 2013-19   (Swarthmore College, US; defiant of Hillel International’s embedded pro-Israel orientation)

Judaism On Our Own Terms 2019- (defiant of Israel-first Hillel International)

Project Rozana 2013- (Australian origins; funds and organises assistance to Palestinian medical personnel and organisations in treating Palestinians in need)

If Not Now 2014- (US)

Vozes Judaicas por Libertacao (Jewish Voices for Liberation) 2014- (Brazil)

Na’amod: British Jews Against Occupation 2018-

Tsedek ! 2023- (France)

JCA     Jewish Council of Australia 2024-

Judeis X Palestina (Jews for Palestine) 2021- (Argentina)

Jews Demand Action 2025-

Jews Against Genocide (UK, informal)

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